Her career was doomed after the Dean of Winchester was poisoned and died after eating one of her fleet's catch at a banquet in 1904.

Oyster catching was a thriving industry in the small Hampshire village of Emsworth at the turn of the century and Terror was part of a busy fleet of vessels used to dredge the beds and convey the shellfish around Chichester Harbour.

But within weeks of the food poisoning scandal, in which several people died from cholera after eating oysters contaminated by sewage, the village's main industry had died and Terror was out of a job.

She embarked on a new role as a day boat, taking people out on tours in the harbour, but after years of neglect, she eventually ended up as a wreck in a museum in Portsmouth.

Terror is set to take people out on day trips again from next year

Apart from the faint impressions of the old nursery beds in the harbour - still visible at low tide - the small wooden boat is thought to be the last surviving vessel from the Emsworth oyster days.

And now Terror has been restored to her former glory.

As she took to the water for a test sail on Wednesday, ahead of her official launch at the Emsworth Food Festival, people gathered to follow her progress from the harbour footpath and others followed her out into the harbour in their own boats.

Watching from the mill pond walk, one mother excitedly told her young son the story about Terror.

After the oyster industry died, Terror was used as a day boat

At the height of her career the 29ft (8.8m) sailing vessel helped to land 100,000 oysters every week - until the day of the fateful banquet.

Robert Perry, project manager for Chichester Harbour Conservancy, which has been behind the restoration project, explained what happened.

"Unfortunately the oyster beds were very close to Emsworth and to the modern - for the day - Victorian sewers, which unfortunately did drain straight into the nursery beds," he said.

"The oysters did exceptionally well - they were nice and juicy - but they had to be filtered and they weren't properly filtered.

Terror was found in a dilapidated condition in a greenhouse in 2003

"Then there was the famous banquet where they served oysters and the Dean of Winchester died as a result of eating them.

"The oyster trade in Emsworth died in a matter of weeks or even days."

In 2003, the remains of Terror were found sitting in a greenhouse near Emsworth.

Mr Perry said he came across the Victorian vessel, which was in a dilapidated condition, by chance.

"She was in a greenhouse in Southbourne and owned by a couple of enthusiasts," he said.

Terror was originally built in a boatyard in Emsworth in about 1890

"They had rescued her from Portsmouth Museum, where she was just about to be broken up.

"But the project proved too big for them so they put an advert in the local paper and I saw it and put a bid in to the lottery fund."